


Mick Gordon - BFG Division 10 Hours [Bass Boosted]

by Rhonda



Category: Doom (Video Games), Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Unwanted Sexual Advances, Canon-Typical Violence, Chainsaw Dueling, Crossover, Doom (2016), F/M, Nonverbal Character, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:34:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25065496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhonda/pseuds/Rhonda
Summary: Olivia Pierce strikes a deal with a demon as a contingency should the Doom Slayer be released from his sarcophagus.Grelle Sutcliff is trapped on Mars during a demonic invasion and is either having a terrible time or an amazing time and she's not sure which.
Relationships: Grell Sutcliff/Doom Slayer
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	1. Demons Aren't For Sexual

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a personal apology letter to the eighth grade boy listening to a girl infodump about Black Butler, thinking it sounded like the lamest shit ever, thinking that Sebastian Michaelis sounded like a prick who should get punched in the face.
> 
> I'm sorry that you grew up into a woman who'd write fan fiction for it, even if you still think those things.

Samuel had his trump card. Taken back from the Kadingir Sanctum. Without her oversight. Stored away, out of reach from her Lazarus Labs. She needed one of her own, if _he_ were to escape. He would ruin everything she had worked so hard for. She had searched the runestones recovered from the umbral plains for any kind of champion she might keep in reserve, any greater demon that might be amenable to her cause, for the right price.

She ultimately found instructions for an old summoning ritual that might fit the bill not amongst the runes of hell itself but from a centuries old dusty journal shipped over from Earth. It had been acquired by the UAC in the early days of their study of the Argent Fracture, having been desperate for any knowledge of the forces of hell and quickly forgotten when it offered very little other than the rather dull day to day housekeeping of some nineteenth century English mansion. It had, however, held the summoning ritual that Olivia now completed in grizzly detail, offering the souls of her employees in exchange for the demon’s help.

An unnatural darkness fell over the center of the ritual glyph as the Advocates that Olivia had enlisted in this task chanted in an ancient tongue. It asked her what form she’d like it to take.

“No no, it shouldn’t matter so long as you can complete your side of the bargain.”

“Very well,” A lithe, red eyed, pale man with styled black hair materialized out of the darkness, wearing a black modern business suit, “The particular ritual you used has me feeling a little bit sentimental, so I figured I might take this dusty old thing out of retirement. And let me make sure I heard you right, you’re going to offer all of their souls,” he said, gesturing to the twenty one Tier Three Advocates prostrating themselves at regular intervals around the summoning circle, “all for the death of one human?”

“When the time comes, yes.” Olivia worried he might not make the deal if he knew just which human it was. 

“I shall eagerly await that time then,” he said as a mark appeared on the back of his hand, identical to the one that Olivia had etched onto her own body. He disappeared, and Olivia hoped he would be enough. If not she already had some of her best scientists working on a second contingency. 

* * *

“‘Go to Mars,’ they said! ‘It will be easy,’ they said!” Grelle bitterly shouted as she slid underneath the hurtling fist of a rampaging hell knight, slicing up into its side to separate its top half from its bottom half.

Ever since man had taken to the stars and started dying there, Dispatch had begun to send reapers with them to make sure their souls didn’t drift off endlessly into the dark expanse. When the UAC had set up their base on Mars, William, the ungrateful prick, had jumped at the opportunity to put at minimum 33 million miles between him and Grelle.

He eagerly volunteered her for the Reapers’ Mars Division, and even managed to convince her that it might be nice. Get away from all the nonsense of Earth for a century or two, all cooped up with a bunch of reaper guys who had no other choices but to fight for her affection. “It is the red planet after all,” he had said. Neither him nor anyone had even mentioned the possibility of a full scale demonic invasion. Now everyone here was dead. She had about 60 thousand souls to collect that, by now, had probably all been consumed by the demons swarming the facility like flies on a corpse. She shuddered at the thought of all that paperwork. 

The last of her ragtag band of surviving reapers had given up the ghost after being sliced in two by a hell razer’s beam two or three hours back. Now she was left fighting her way through the facility on her own. She didn’t have much of a goal other than survival at this point. There wasn’t any easy way back to the Reaper Realm from here and she’d been desperately trying to find a way to send a message to Earth. She hadn’t fooled herself into believing that any back up would be able to arrive in time to save her, but despite everything she was a good employee and it was the right thing to at least warn Dispatch that shit was going down, even if she wasn’t sure that they or really anyone was equipped to deal with a situation like this.

Every computer she’d encountered had been unable to connect to the rest of the solar system, and all of them seemed to indicate that it was because some satellite dish was unaligned on the other side of the facility. After having no luck with the master terminal in the facilities control room, she then tried crying and pounding on the desk to see if that might help. Somehow it did and the satellite dish had realigned itself. She assumed that her tantrum had made the computer system feel bad enough for her that it did it on its own. She wasn’t sure, but the computers that humans made these days really did some amazing things.

She had managed to finally get through a video call to Dispatch after waiting to get transferred by at least a hundred different secretaries and sighed when she saw the face of her sweet William for what she thought might be the last time. She had explained to him what was going on and he had just thought she was making some kind of lame prank. Admittedly that was on her, she did often call him to just bother him with some inane made up excuse just so that she could talk to him. It wasn’t until she held up half of the limp mutilated body of the head of the Mars Dispatch that he realized she was serious. That and the fact that Grelle would never let her makeup become that messy just for a goof. He had seemed genuinely concerned for Grelle’s wellbeing and the realization on his face that she was probably going to die made Grelle’s heart break. They had to cut his heartfelt confession for how he had truly loved her all these years short when a pack of imps broke through her barricaded door and sent a ball of flaming hell energy into the console’s screen. She was honestly relieved, while she had been crushing on the man for over three centuries, seeing him sobbing and snotty like that had been kind of a turn off. 

Now she was running room to room fighting for her life, she was honestly surprised she was still kicking. With how quickly the entire Mars Division was picked off she was sure that she was next. She had years of experience and was truly talented at the whole fighting thing but she was expecting her valiant last stand to end hours ago. Instead she kept pressing forward into the ever growing tides of demons that were overrunning Mars. She had no idea how long it had been, a while ago the big tower thingy that shot lasers into space exploded and opened a portal directly to Hell in the sky which materially made things a lot worse.

The hell knight that she had cleft in twain screamed as her chainsaw bit into its flesh, mixing with the sickening, yet oddly intoxicating noises of tearing muscle and snapping bone. Its top half and bottom half both spun different directions as its carcass came clattering to the ground. Grelle didn’t have a moment to celebrate taking down the wild beast since she was already under fire from a small circus of imps that had climbed up on some nearby crates and pillars. As she ran towards them she was nearly knocked off balance by a blast of narcotic bile that splashed at her feet. She knew that a cacodemon was pursuing her but to change course and velocity now might get her caught out under the imps’ hellfire.

Instead she pressed forward dashing up an industrial pillar and slicing the imp that had been perched on it cleanly in half with her Death Scythe. She carried the momentum to land on the adjacent crate slashing at the imp’s chest and severing its arm, the creature kept coming towards her with its still attached claw which she nimbly avoided spinning around and striking the beast through the chest and casting it aside to the ground below. The last imp on the crate above her screamed, its arms flung back as though it were about to pounce. Instead of letting it, she sweeped its legs causing it to face plant on the top of the crate while she jumped up onto its level, finishing it off by stabbing her stiletto heel into its eye.

She turned to face the cacodemon that was still approaching, only just barely missing her with its bile while she did her acrobatics. She used the crate as a springboard and elegantly plunged the tip of her chainsaw into its eye, twisting it back and forth while it squealed. She pressed it deeper, hitting the thing’s brain and causing it to pop violently with psionic energy. When it exploded she fell to the ground on her back awkwardly with a splat, getting covered in the beast's blood and guts. She lay there for a moment thinking about just how ruined her skirt suit was and how uncomfortably sticky she felt. The moment didn’t last long when she spotted a hell razer peaking around the corner and taking aim at her prone form. She lazily tossed her still running chainsaw through its face pinning its twitching body to the wall. She just let herself lay there for a second.

She sighed rolling onto her side, eyes lazily unfocusing at the room full of complicated high tech industrial equipment. She thought about nothing much at all. She was pretty exhausted from this whole ordeal, but she was still having more fun than she had in decades. Maybe this would just be her life now, killing demons. As a reaper she was supposed to be neutral on the whole demons versus seraphim thing, but demons’ diet of souls made them her natural enemies, and they certainly acted like it. 

Her eyes eventually focused on the nearby corpse of a UAC Marine who had his head twisted all the way around. His arms limply clutched a machine gun that looked like it was still loaded. She kept finding guns on the ground all around the complex but she really didn’t know the first thing about using them and was worried she might hurt herself if she tried. Besides, her chainsaw Death Scythe was a more efficient weapon at dealing with the hordes than she could have ever dreamed. She looked over at it stuck into the wall, right through the Hell Razer’s chitinous skull. It had stopped running, probably getting stuck on the demon’s thick dermal armour or else the wiring inside the walls. She should probably go untangle the thing before any demons caught her with her pants down. She got to her feet with a little effort, really feeling her age in that moment. That and she hadn’t gotten through all the fighting entirely unscathed. She had received her fair share of cuts and bruises, some of them deeper than others. Thankfully none of them had reached her face. 

She walked over to her discarded weapon with an audible crunching. Her moment of indolence had let a good portion of the demon blood soaking her outfit to begin to coagulate, and it made a noise when she walked that made her giggle to herself. Yeah, her chainsaw was really in there. She needed to press her foot high up against the wall and pull with all her strength but the thing finally came loose and started running again causing her to do a ridiculous pratfall backwards as her Death Scythe plunged into the backwards head marine.

To her surprise the corpse hadn’t actually had its soul taken yet. Maybe the demons that were here had already gorged themselves; could demons get full? Shit maybe she should still do her job since she had nothing better to do. She still had her notebook in her breast pocket out of habit and she took it out to take a few notes on his Cinematic Record. A typical jarhead jock with too many anger issues and insecurities, became a private military contractor just so he could point guns at people.

She heard one of the automatic doors to the room open, probably another one of those possessed, mindlessly clamoring around. She lazily sloshed her chainsaw back and forth in the marine’s corpse, before turning to attack the intruder.

Instead of another mindless zombie there stood a space marine. There was something different about his armor than the rest of the UAC bunch though. It was a completely different style, simultaneously more futuristic and ancient looking. In one hand he loosely held a chainsaw, slightly smaller than her own and obviously built in a factory rather than lovingly hand crafted. In the other a nasty looking double barrelled shotgun.

She looked him up and down again, he wasn’t a demon, or an angel or a reaper or any other kind of supernatural being. He was just a guy.

A guy pointing a gun at grelle. Grelle managed to dodge out of the way of most of the blast but a good amount of pellets raked across her left shoulder tearing up flesh, but most importantly her now beyond salvaging blazer. Well, now he was a dead guy. Grelle ran at him and quickly swung her Death Scythe.

Sparks flew as he used his own chainsaw to deflect the blow. It was so unexpected that she had put all her momentum into the strike and its redirection caused her to fall for the third time in the last ten minutes, right on her face. She heard a pair of shotgun shells get slapped into a receiver before closing and she quickly rolled away, just barely being missed as the ground where she was laying exploded. Grelle jumped to her feet and ran in a wide arc around the man, ducking behind an industrial crate and nearly tripping over the corpse of an imp from earlier. She heard the sound of a machine gun being loaded and footsteps before she realized he was flanking her cover.

“Hey hey hey! What’s the big idea here, anyway? Don’t you know there are Demons invading Mars? Don’t you have anything better to do than shoot at an innocent girl?” She shouted dashing up and along the walls, fifty caliber bullets impacting mere milliseconds behind her. The man either didn’t hear her or didn’t want to talk things out. She made it back to the floor and ran straight towards him trying to close the gap. With one swing she managed to slice the machine gun in half, with a second she would have sliced his head off but instead her chainsaw met with his again. They sparked and rattled as she pressed into him. 

  
  


“I invented these you know,” she called out over the cacophony of revving diesel engines and the grind of metal on metal. It was all that she could think to say, unfortunately it didn’t seem to take him off guard nor did he even seem to acknowledge it. Did this dude have headphones on underneath that helmet or something? He was strong, not just physically but also with some kind of ineffable arcane prowess. Being able to block her Death Scythe like this was more than proof of that. He was definitely physically stronger than her though, he managed to start forcing her back from the clash, and she quickly lost ground.

“Stop it please! You know I’m not a demon, right? I realize I do look pretty scary and that’s been something I’ve been coping with all my life but just because I wear red and have sharp teeth doesn’t make me a demon!” He had pressed her all the way against the wall and it was all she could do just to hold her ground. In a subtle maneuver that Grelle had no choice but to admire, he hooked the end of his chainsaw around to her handle, simultaneously slicing open the back of her hand and knocking her Death Scythe across the room. She slid down the wall sticking her hands up in defeat. He pointed the tip of his whirring blade to her chest.

“Eep!” she eeped, looking up at the strange man with big eyes, pouting out her lips as she began softly weeping. “You know, I’d be lying if I say that this wasn’t how I always knew it was going to end, a man thrusting his stiff dangerous instrument into my moist quivering body.” She closed her eyes for a moment, but quickly opened one slightly peaking out at what the man did next. Instead of ending her right there he lowered the chainsaw, and walked away. Grelle had never been so incredulous.

“Oh what, so you’re just going to leave a lady high and dry like that? Pulling out right before the climax?” She called after him scrambling to her feet, blood still flowing from her shoulder and the back of her hand. She ran over to scoop up her Death Scythe and gingerly walked up behind him, keeping a nervous distance lest she spook him into attacking again. He knelt down by the twisty head marine.

“Was he your friend? I’m sorry. I can understand why you might have thought that I was disrespecting his memory. But in actuality I was doing just the opposite. He is actually one of the few souls I’ve managed to keep from being consumed by the demons as a matter of fact.” The man reached for the machine gun the marine was holding and pried it out of his stiff hands. He looked down the sights and cocked it.

“Ah, you’re just getting his gun then, I get it. I did sort of cut yours in half back there.” He didn’t look at her and instead he just kept walking.

“Hey, maybe we just got off on the wrong foot is all, my name is Grelle Sutcliff and as I said I am actually not a demon despite my appearance. I’m a Grim Reaper. Like, I collect souls from the dead. Like a psychopomp sorta thing. I’m technically a neutral party in all of this but you try telling them that!” Grelle laughed her most schmoozy laugh, and he slowed down and turned towards her. She eagerly stuck out her hand, “Like I said, I’m Grelle Sutcliff.” He looked down at her hand then back up at her. He gripped her hand firmly and gave it one, two shakes and then let go and turned back towards where he was going. She squeaked at having made contact with the first friendly face she’d seen since this whole disaster started. Well, she couldn’t see his face but she imagined it was friendly as well as rugged and handsome.

“Ah the strong and silent type then. I like that in a man you know,” she said. “I also like a man that can kick my ass, which you have proven.” He stopped at a jammed door that Grelle had passed over for fear of breaking a nail and reached under it to start forcing it open. “Listen, I don’t really have anywhere to be going or anything to do so... if it’s all the same... would it be alright if I tagged along to wherever you’re headed? Say absolutely nothing to me if it’s alright!”

The man in the space marine armor shouldered the heavy looking blast door open and turned to look at her. She looked at him. He used his head to point her through the opening.

“Eep!” Grelle eeped again, this time happily. She ducked under the door held for her like a proper gentleman would and he followed her into a room under lockdown because of a gore nest. She revved her Death Scythe and he pulled out his shotgun and they got to work.


	2. They Are For Killing

Grelle was having a wonderful time with her new best friend, and maybe boyfriend, she wasn’t quite sure if he’d say so but that didn’t really matter since he didn’t say much of anything. They had so much in common, they both liked killing demons, they both used chainsaws (although he really did seem a lot more of a gun guy now they were fighting side by side), and uh… Well some of the best relationships have been founded on less. She wasn’t really sure exactly what he was up to but, being along for the ride was fun.

He was silent as ever but she more than made up for it. Honestly, men who talked were overrated. She told him about herself, her life and more importantly her death and afterlife. She wasn’t really sure how closely he was listening. He’d go for long stretches without reacting in any way, just up until the point where Grelle might have assumed he was completely ignoring her, only for him to face her and nod or shake his head or give some kind of simple hand gesture. Men almost never let her talk to them for this long and she was luxuriating in it. She’d even chat to him while they fought the demonic hordes, only she wasn’t sure if he could hear her over the clamor of bestial snarls and gunshots and chainsaws.

They had apparently been looking for the corpse of some guy who had a tram pass, she realized after she saw him watch a forensic report of a pinky running off with the corpse of some guy who had a tram pass. She used her deadly efficient reaper skills to suss that out, and she had felt pretty proud of herself when he nodded after she said as much. She didn’t really know what tram they were going to take or to where, but it beat sitting around twiddling her thumbs.

Eventually they found it dead, with the corpse still in its mouth. Her skirt, blazer, tights, hair, nails, makeup, and pretty much everything else about her was pretty trashed but she still made him reach into the dirty thing’s mouth and pull it out. They had to fight their way pretty much everywhere here and she looked forward to the momentary respite riding the facilities’ trams might give them.

“So I told him to not worry about me passing out or dying or anything and to just enjoy himself. I haven’t needed to breathe since I died so it’s really no trouble,” she said as they walked through the automatic tram doors after having dispatched the demons loitering in the station outside. She plopped down into one of the seats and let herself lean back and manspread a bit. She'd earned it, and besides they were way beyond the point where the whole modest hyperfemininity act that she’d been pulling on humans lately would be able to work on him. 

He’d seen her plunge her saw into the distended belly of a mancubus and shower in its blood and that hadn’t turned him off from her at all. She liked that about him, with him there was no pretense between them. She’d even come out casually which was usually something she saved right until she couldn’t keep it a secret any longer, and he hadn’t even batted an eye, or at least she assumed he didn’t since she couldn’t see his eyes. He pressed a button at the front of the car and the tram started going somewhere.

“Anyway he dumped me after that, apparently it was too creepy or something,” she said, lolling her head back and staring out of the window at the Martian landscape that passed by. She turned back to see him sitting across from her shaking. At first Grelle was worried she had upset him somehow but she quickly realized that he was laughing. Laughing at her story. It made her blush, this guy was a real tough nut to crack, but something about it made reaching him in little ways like this all the sweeter.

Apparently where they were going was the Advanced Research Complex. After they had dealt with the demons immediately outside of the tram station, the Space Marine had gone off to climb in some air vents in a bathroom looking for new guns and armor upgrades and other goodies that she didn’t have any particular interest in. She didn’t really have the patience for waiting around for him to come out and there was no way she was going to crawl around in an air vent after him so she went on ahead. By now she was confident that he wasn’t going to abandon her the first chance he got, so she felt comfortable exploring a little bit of the complex without him. She sliced her way through a few possessed employees and soldiers and made her way to the base of a staircase leading into the main atrium of the place. At the top of the staircase stood a handsome man in a fairly stylish black suit. He casually had his back to her, white gloved hand in front of his face in what could be described as “a pose.” He tilted his head and called out to her without looking over his shoulder.

“Ah, so my quarry finally reveals itself. I’m sorry to have to put an end to your fun, but unfortunately my mistress has plans that need you out of the way. Any last words hum- Wait, no… You’re not human,” he said turning around to see Grelle standing below him, “Who are yo- Oh goodness, Grelle Sutcliff? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Well, um… I work here, what do you mean? Do I know you?” She asked indignantly. She didn’t recognize this man. He clearly wasn’t human either, but with all the pervasive stench of demons that had soaked into every corner of the UAC she couldn’t be too sure what he was.

“But how could you forget your dearly beloved Sebastian Michaelis?” he asked with a bemused expression that slowly faded when recognition never appeared on Grelle’s face. “You know… the Demon Butler of the Phantomhive Estate… A bratty little boy who’d never smile… You’d come over all the time for basically no reason other than to insert yourself into our adventures… You were in love with me, you said you wished you could bear my children!... For goodness sake you called me Bassie, remember? Bassie!” Sebastian said, growing increasingly frustrated at Grelle’s blank expression.

“None of that’s really ringing any bells, sorry. I don’t know why I’d ever call anyone Bessie, that seems kind of a stupid nickname.” Grelle called back up the staircase.

“Not Bessie, _Bassie!_ And yes, it was a stupid nickname and _you_ came up with it because you were in love with me!” Grelle scrunched up her face trying very hard to remember this man. “Jack the Ripper! You were Jack the Ripper and I helped the Earl catch you red handed!” He shouted and it suddenly dawned on her. She took on a defensive stance holding up her chainsaw in case he tried something sneaky.

“Ohhhhh! Yes, now I remember. William took away my Death Scythe because I was naughty and I had to run around with little pruning scissors or something,” she said, eyeing him up and down. If this really was the same Sebastian then she and her new friend might be in some bigger trouble than they had faced thus far. But he seemed genuinely upset, which wasn’t how she remembered him at all. 

“Oh Sebastian, you really thought I was in love with you?” she called up to him. Of all the indignation of being forgotten those words specifically caused his face to fall. “Honey that was, like, a bit I was doing. I mean don’t get me wrong, I would. With you I definitely would. But for the most part it just started because I thought it was funny and then when I saw how uncomfortable it made you I figured I’d keep it going.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t remember me,” he muttered looking sullen before quickly regaining his composure.

“That was over two and a half centuries ago. You know I have a life, Bassie. I have lots of friends and we do things together. I’ve probably had hundreds of men since then. Made thousands of new memories with people who are near and dear to me. Have you really not been up to anything since then? Do you do anything other than laze around Hell and mope?” He didn’t have a response to that.

“So, where is the human that I’m supposed to meet here?” Sebastian said, trying to change the subject.

“Around,” Grelle replied vaguely since she didn’t really know. Some clattering noises came from the other room that sounded like a very heavy man in armor falling out of an air duct onto some industrial equipment. “Probably back there, I think. He’ll be here soon, hold on.” They stood around in an awkward and tense silence.

Her new friend passed around the corner and came up to stand next to her. At the sight of the man Sebastian reflexively shuttered and swore under his breath.

“The Doom Slayer... A-ah so my quarry finally reveals itself,” Sebastian continued, clearly not wanting to waste his prepared speech, “I’m sorry to have to put an end to your fun, but unfor-” He was cut short by a rain of uranium coated bullets tearing through his body. The Space Marine, Grelle thought Sebastian had called him Doom Slayer, had pulled out the mobile turret extension for his chaingun and was firing into the demon with all three independent miniguns, slowly advancing up the stairs towards him as fast as the heavy piece of military equipment would allow. The metal of the barrels became red, then white hot with the sheer volume of anti-materiel rounds that were being forced through them. At the top of the stairs his ammunition ran out with a series of loud clicks and what was left of Sebastian’s body was finally permitted to slump to the ground.

The room was then filled with an eerie silence, broken only by the soft hiss of steam rising from the Slayer’s chaingun. 

“I honestly wasn’t expecting that to go so smoothly, dude nearly killed me once. If it wasn’t for William he probably would have. I told you about William right? Yeah, I really am dependent on men to come to my rescue, a real damsel in distress,” Grelle prattled on nervously, standing close behind him. Demons on Sebastian’s level kind of stressed her out and she thought that he might still be alive, a fear which was justified when the body sputtered up blood out of its mouth and started making noises.

“How… Unbecoming,” Sebastian garbled, trying to move to get up. The Slayer just stomped his head into some red demon mush. He kept stomping, to what even Grelle thought was an excessive degree.

“Oh Darling, I think he’s dead as disco,” she commented, putting a gentle hand on the Slayer’s shoulder causing him to slow down and stop. She limply kicked at what remained of the demon’s corporeal form, and it didn’t seem to move. She looked at her new friend who turned to look at her. “That was pretty hot of you, may I thank my noble knight for coming to my rescue?” she said leaning over to offer a kiss on his helmet, with her heels they were about the same height. He graciously accepted the smooch and she liked to pretend that he was blushing.

They moved forward through the facility, eventually reaching the office of the UAC Mars Director who was apparently still kicking. The guy was like a cyborg or a human soul in a robot body or something. If William were here he’d have an aneurysm. During their long phone calls across the empty void of the solar system he’d often complain about the accelerating technological capabilities of humans blurring the lines between life and death and creating a bureaucratic nightmare with regard to exactly which souls should be reaped when. She decided that she’d stay out of the room for the Slayer’s conversation with the man for plausible deniability if she found out later she was supposed to reap him.

Apparently they were making their way to the Lazarus Labs. She didn’t know why but they had to make it across a chasm and into the BFG Division. The Lazarus Labs scared her, she didn’t really know what went on in them but people went in and they never came out or had their souls listed for collection. She realized now that it was probably because of all the demons. She felt kind of like a dolt for not being able to figure it out but then again neither did any of the other reapers here in the Mars Dispatch.

There was demonic resistance of course but it wasn’t too much trouble between the two of them, and now that she knew his name she felt like their conversations were a little bit less one sided. They weren’t but at least she could attach a name to the things she imagined him saying back at her.

Inside the BFG division they found a Big Fucking Gun that shot green lightning that seemed to make her new boyfriend very happy. Oh, did she just think boyfriend again, she really hoped it wasn’t just her projecting but she really felt like they were vibing.

They took the elevator down the Lazarus Labs after a fight that felt like it went on for ages, and the darkness, gore, and general evil atmosphere of the place had her more than a little spooked. She leaned into him, presumptuously laying her head on his chest as she vocalized her concern. Unlike the majority of men she had flirted with he didn’t shove her away. He even put an arm around her to comfort her, which proved they were definitely vibing.

As they moved through the labs they passed by a massive tank that had the partial remains of an ancient Baalgar Demon which Grelle was very thankful was not alive and here to for them to have to fight. She thought she might have seen a little bit of disappointment in the Slayer’s posture at seeing it in tatters floating in formaldehyde, but she might have just been reading too much into him.

By the time he was unlocking a giant floating runestone covered in umbrial glyphs and placing his hand upon it to absorb its arcane knowledge she resigned herself to being woefully out of the loop as to what was happening or why. She had never gone into anything quite as wild as this as clueless as she was, but she had a few stories that came close. Still this guy hadn’t steered her wrong so far and he was into her, probably. She wondered if at any point they might get a break from whatever mission he was on to try fooling around. She wondered if that armor could even come off.

They descended further into the laboratories and Grelle gawked at some of the ritualistic arcane magicks that she saw. She didn’t really know much about science but she felt like some of this stuff was atypical for the regular scientific lab. The Forensics division definitely never had any blood altairs and all the skeletons they had were pedagogical. They turned off a big red orb and fought some demons that popped out of rune stone covered shipping crates, it was all some good clean unrestrained summer fun. Eventually they got to some big plain heavy industrial silo doors.

The Slayer stopped and turned towards her. She didn’t know what was on the other side of these doors but if he knew he wasn’t telling her. Maybe that robot guy had told him what was on the other side over the radio, but she was as out of the loop as ever. He looked at her as if to ask if she were ready, she just shrugged. 

“As ready as I’ve been for everything else that’s happened over the past… my entire life,” she said. He nodded and started at the heavy looking silo doors.

As he tried to open them something on the other side opened it for him and a massive white gloved hand reached through and grabbed him. She quickly jumped through the gap after him before the heavy doors sprung shut. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw. It was a hulking demon, carapace black as sin, and giant raven wings to match. What elements of its suit hadn’t been ripped to tatters by the chaingun had been torn as its body was scientifically enhanced. One arm was beefy with dagger-like claws that poked through a white glove while the other ended in a laser artillery cannon with rocket attachments. In fact, a large portion of its body had been integrated with grizzly looking military technology. In its chest sat a blue glowing aperture connecting to power lines that pulsed all across its body. One of its legs was entirely mechanical but both ended in heels that were steeper than Grelle’s own. Its many fuschia slitted eyes were gazing at the both of them with loathing. It only had some of a face that wasn’t covered in chrome cybernetics but the face it had was unmistakable.

She should have realized this could have been a possibility. Othello once infodumped a lecture on demon physiology, which she had actually listened to at the time since she was going through a cute nerd boys phase. Shadow Lords on the level of Bassie had cells that for the most part only went dormant on death rather than actually truly expiring. Modern technology or Ancient mysticism had the ability to resuscitate them in part, and it seemed that they had both been used to create the Cybersebastion. It screamed at them with a petrifying otherworldly shriek that was horrifically interlaced with cacophonous digital distortion. 

“Holy fucking shit,” Grelle said as the Cybersebastian pointed its cannon at her fucking face and would have blown her to smitherines if the Slayer hadn’t tackled her out of the way. Being so close to the man froze her even more, swooning as he rolled off of her and began running around the room firing rockets into the Cybersebastian. Thankfully that got its attention off of Grelle long enough to let her roll around and squeal with joy at him having saved her. She rolled onto her stomach and put her head in her hands watching her brave knight duel the wicked beast. The way he moved was so elegant, the timing of his jumps and dashes and shots were like a dance. Maybe he was the one.

She was pulled out of her daydream when the Cybersebastian opened up a series of missile tubes on its back which it fired into the air, carpet bombing the room. Grelle jumped up and out of the way of an explosion just in time to barely avoid another one, and another. She looked up at the Cybersebastian, the Doom Slayer kept landing hits on it with rockets and beams and bullets and while it seemed like they were making some impact, it really seemed like it was shrugging most of it off. She needed to get in there to help out.

Grelle revved up her Death Scythe and jumped at the Cybersebastian. It spotted her approach out of one of its many eyes and the beast used one of its heavy wings to smack her out of the air bouncing off the ground hard and flying off to impact with the wall. She left a Grelle shaped bloodstain as she slid down the wall. Clearly the Cybersebastian was a worthy foe. She felt a little dizzy from the hit but she resolved to get in there and help out her courageous new boyfriend. 

She ran up towards the Cybersebastian at a curved angle, heels pitter pattering rapidly as she approached fast and low. Just as she began her swing it caught her with a swift kick from its long cybernetic leg and she flew back into the wall again leaving a second Grelle shaped bloodstain adjacent to the first. This time she flopped off of the wall and splattered face first into the ground. She was losing a lot of blood and, while she was superhuman in many aspects, combined with all the other punishment she’d endured over the last twenty four hours she really couldn’t take much more of this.

Third time’s the charm. She tried to insert herself into the fray once again. Luckily for her the Cybersebastian was looking much worse for wear due to her boyfriend's efforts. It was covered in abrasions and dripping black ichor, parts of its wiring and circuitry exposed. She came in at it and managed to block the swing of its massive fist with her Death Scythe. She didn’t see the cannon arm coming around and the impact of the metal of the barrel to her head combined with the impact of her head to the metal of the wall squished most of her remaining blood right on out of her.

Grelle blacked out right after she realized she’d made a third Grelle shaped bloodstain.

* * *

The quirky sharp toothed woman fell down limply in the corner and didn’t get up. Doomguy often didn’t think he could get any angrier at demons but he was just as often proven wrong. The creature roared in triumph at downing her which gave him just enough time to lock onto it with a rocket volley that staggered it enough for him to get in close.

He climbed up the Cybersebastian’s slumped body to yoink out its argent accumulator. It turned to face him before its lack of power caused it to seize up and clatter to the ground like a toy that had its batteries pulled out. The agitation of the accumulator caused it to destabilize and begin spinning gyroscopically in the air before bursting and sucking them all into Hell. 

He looked towards Grelle wanting to check to see if she was alive. She wasn’t breathing, a realization that overtook him with a hurt and vulnerability that he thought he couldn’t feel anymore. He heard a crack of lightning behind him. Mourning the funny girl would have to wait.

He turned around to see the Cybersebastian drawing in power from the energy of Hell itself. It rose to its feet, a fine black mist beginning to emerge from its body and settle across the battlefield.

These Shadow Lord creeps just never knew when to stay down.

Killing it was trickier here in its own domain. It used the very terrain against him, but a few well placed shots of the BFG, some rockets, rail gun beams, chaingun rounds, and shells of his super shotgun later and the thing was just as worse for wear as it had been on Mars. 

In its weakened state he channeled all of his seething rage at it having killed the first woman he’d fallen for in what must have been millenia. Doomguy twisted off the beast’s cybernetic leg and bashed it in the face with it. Slapping it back and forth. The Cybersebastian looked dazed and he twisted the leg around and spiked its stylish cybernetic high heel into its mouth, pinning it to the ground as it died.

He ran over to Grelle’s body. It lay there motionless. Why did everything he love have to die. Why had he chosen this path of perpetual torment. First Daisy, now her. He would make all demonkind pay for this. Well, he was already going to make all of demonkind pay but now even more.

Oh wait, didn’t she say she didn’t need to breathe, he didn’t want to dare let himself hope but maybe she wasn’t dead. He leaned down and shook her, and then shook her again. He didn’t know the first thing about waking up people who may or may not be dead, so he shook her again.

Luckily that seemed to do the trick and she opened her eyes and sat up quickly, leaning over and vomiting up blood. He was so relieved that she was okay, well not okay but at least alive or undead or whatever she was he didn’t really understand. After coughing up more blood her eyes focused on him.

“Oh, my hero, my darling Doomy,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. At the nickname he felt his helmet getting a little hot. He gently disentangled himself from her to her immediate disappointment. The disappointment left when he reached up to his helmet and twisted it off.

For the first time since meeting her she was speechless. He took advantage of her momentarily unused lips and kissed her, and then he kissed her again. The Crucible could wait a little while, it wasn’t going anywhere after all.


End file.
